There's only one hurdle left for a bill to authorize the Texas attorney general to sue so-called patent trolls that send patent infringement demand letters in bad faith.

The Texas House on May 22 voted to pass Senate Bill 1457. The House did not make any changes to the version of SB 1457 that the Senate passed on April 21, which means that the bill will head to Gov. Greg Abbott.

SB 1457, by Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jackson, only applies to demand letters that make bad-faith claims and are sent to the end user of a product, service or technology. The bill defines a bad-faith claim as a communication that: falsely states that the sender had filed a lawsuit; makes a claim that is objectively baseless because the sender didn't have a right to license or enforce the patent or because the patent was invalid, unenforceable or expired; or fails to list the patent, the patent holder's identity or the way an end user had allegedly infringed the patent.